MD 1407 - Landau Damping: Beam Transfer Functions and diffusion mechanisms

In the 2012, 2015 and 2016 run several instabilities were developing at flat-top, during and at the end of the betatron squeeze where beam-beam interactions are present. The tune spread in the beams is therefore modified by the beam-beam long-range interactions and by other sources of spread. Studies of the stability area computed by evaluating the dispersion integral for different tune spreads couldn’t explain the observed instabilities during the squeeze and stable beams. The size of the stability area given by the computed dispersion integral depends on the transverse tune spread but its shape is defined by the particle distribution in the beams. Therefore any change of the particle distribution can lead to a deterioration of the Landau stability area. The Beam Transfer Functions (BTF) are direct measurements of the Stability Diagrams (SD). They are sensitive to particle distributions and contain information about the transverse tune spread in the beams. In this note are summarized the results of the BTF measurements acquired during the MD devoted to experimentally characterize the stability diagram for different Landau octupole currents, chromaticities, beam-beam long range separations and head-on separations.